The Missing Large-Angle Correlation: Computing S1/2 from a Sachs-Wolfe Spectrum and Placing the Observed Deficit on a Cosmic-Variance Scale
The two-point correlation function of the microwave sky nearly vanishes at separations above sixty degrees, a feature summarised by the statistic S1/2, whose observed value near 1300 microK to the fourth power sits far below ensemble expectations. This paper recomputes the statistic from stated spectra rather than quoting it: a scale-invariant Sachs-Wolfe plateau yields S1/2 of 50688.0 microK to the fourth, and Monte Carlo over the multipole sampling distribution places the observed value at the 0.032 percentile of the plateau ensemble. Imposing a smooth large-angle suppression step centred at multipole 4 reduces the predicted statistic to 1407.0, within reach of the observation. The deficit is therefore real arithmetic, not a plotting impression, and it is specifically a deficit of the lowest few multipoles, which is why it coexists with a normal-looking spectrum at smaller angles. Any explanation must remove large-angle correlation while leaving the acoustic regime untouched, a requirement this computation makes quantitative. The study is computed, not measured.
Authors
- William Alexander Aldred (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1215-577X)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Published
- 2026-11-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24124230
- Primary Topic
- Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00